Responsibilities: 

Lead Category Strategy and Growth 

• Develop and execute short- and long-term category, product, and packaging strategies that support Sonic’s business objectives and drive sustainable sales and profit growth. 

• Identify emerging consumer trends, marketplace opportunities, and white space platforms to inform the innovation road map and future growth initiatives. 

• Partner with category management director and senior leadership to establish category priorities and strategic recommendations. 

Own Innovation Pipeline 

• Lead the end-to-end innovation process from concept development through commercialization, including opportunity identification, business case development, product testing, launch planning, and post launch evaluation. 

• Build and manage the beverage, snack, and sides pipeline of innovation initiatives across core menu, limited time offers, and packaging. 

• Collaborate with culinary to develop, refine, and validate new products and platforms. 

Lead Market Testing and Launch Execution 

• Oversee market test strategy, execution, and performance evaluation to ensure initiatives are operationally sound and commercially successful. 

• Drive launch readiness activities, including stage gate deliverables, execution checklist, operational alignment, training requirements, and launch materials. 

• Identify and mitigate risks while ensuring projects remain on schedule and meet business objectives. 

Own Category Performance and Insights 

• Monitor category, product, promotion, and test performance to identify opportunities for growth, optimization, and profitability improvement. 

• Lead consumer research efforts and leverage marketplace, competitive, and operational insights to inform category strategy and innovation priorities. 

• Develop data-driven recommendations and present findings to senior leadership. 

Management & Direct Reports: 

• 1 Category Specialist  

Requirements: 

• 4 Year Degree Preferred 

• 7+ years of experience in a category or brand management position 

• Business acumen, including understanding of market trends, consumers, competitors and P&L fluency. 

• Experience taking product ideas from ideation to execution. 

• Ability to think strategically and creatively. 

• Ability to collect and synthesize information, making it relevant, understandable, and actionable for key stakeholders. 

• Excellent communication and presentation skills, especially the ability to explain difficult concepts in applicable business terms. Strong ability to summarize strategies into (PowerPoint) presentations in clear and understandable message. 

• Strong computer skills: Excel, Word, PowerPoint are required. 

• Is detail oriented with a focus on accuracy, process management, and execution excellence. 

• Project Management and strong ability to work with cross-functional teams. 

• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, multi-task, prioritize and be detail oriented. 

• Self-starter personality with excellent organizational skills who can operate with some supervision and has the ability to manage multiple projects and timelines simultaneously. 

• Ideal candidate has an inquisitive nature, a passion for learning and solving problems and a growth mindset. 

• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and adapt to changing business priorities. 

• A go getter who carries a positive attitude every day and who desires to grow in the role and within the marketing organization. 

Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 33,000 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC restaurants worldwide. 
 
We’re made up of some of the world’s most iconic restaurant brands, but we’re much more than just a restaurant company. We’re a team of hundreds of thousands who individually and collectively are changing the way people eat, drink, and gather around the table. We know that food is much more than a staple—it’s an experience. At Inspire, that’s our purpose: to ignite and nourish flavorful experiences.